INTRODUCTION 1 The Urban Drama DISASTER RAISING UP A FALLEN SKY The Best Way to Fill the Chilling Void in the Lower Manhattan Skyline Is with a Great New Urban Center, Not a Reproduction of the Destroyed Twin Towers DON''T ABANDON NEW ORLEANS The Big Easy, an American Masterpiece, Deserves to Be Saved; Its Rebuilding Should Stress Substance over Show SECURITY LAND OF THE SORT OF FREE In a Nervous City, Places like the Federal Plaza Run Scared, While the Daley Plaza Hangs Tough FORT WASHINGTON From the Heartland to the Capital, Federal Buildings Put on the Armor of a Nation under Siege HUBS OF FRUSTRATION Airports--A Symbol of Our Freedom of Movement--Have Become Dehumanizing THE PROMISE AND PERILS OF REBUILDING A BRILLIANT TIGHTROPE WALK AT GROUND ZERO One Plan for WTC Rises above the Rest TOWER OF BANAL Latest Freedom Tower Design Erases Original Vision of Remembrance and Renewal RECLAIMING THE PUBLIC REALM A PEOPLE''S PARK FOR THE FUTURE Why Millennium Park Has Instantly--and Interactively--Established Itself as Chicago''s New Town Square THE MILLENNIUM PARK EFFECT It Has Emerged as a Sparkling Example of How Big Cities Can Get Big Things Done 2 The Building Boom WRETCHED EXCESS MONUMENTS TO MEDIOCRITY The Demands of Business Overwhelm the Art of Architecture in a Surge of High-Rise Residential Construction ONCE GRAND, NOW BLAND Boom in Branch Banks Is Shortchanging the Character of Neighborhoods A MICKEY D''S ON STEROIDS When Supersize Isn''t Necessarily Better A GALLERY OF ROGUES For Every Gem Produced by the Long-Running Building Boom, There Are Even More Clunkers GEMS AMID THE ROUGH A SPARKLING NEW HIGH-RISE, THE CONTEMPORAINE, HERALDS THE REVIVAL OF MODERNISM LIGHTER-THAN-AIR SERTA HEADQUARTERS ELEVATES THE ORDINARY WAVES OF CREATIVITY The Aqua Tower, by Rising Star Jeanne Gang, Is One of Chicago''s Boldest and Best New Skyscrapers DOES SUPERTALL MEAN SUPERB? THE DONALD''S DUD Trump''s Skyscraper, Shortened by the Post-9/11 Fear of Heights, Reaches Only for Mediocrity SCALING AESTHETIC HEIGHTS Skyscraper Adapts to Our World in a Stunning New Way LET''S TWIST AGAIN Third Time''s the Charm for Lakefront Tower--or Is It? HOW TO BUILD TODAY''S SUPERTALLS Elegance, Not Machismo, Is behind Chicago''s Unprecedented Reach for the Sky A SKYSCRAPER OF MANY FACES In Trump''s Context-Driven Chicago Skyscraper, Beauty Is in the Eye--and the Vantage Point--of the Beholder THE NEW BURJ DUBAI, THE WORLD''S TALLEST BUILDING, SHOWS THAT NOTHING SUCCEEDS LIKE EXCESS 3 The Age of Icons CATHEDRALS OF CULTURE WINGED VICTORY Santiago Calatrava Marries Sculpture and Structure, and Molds a New Identity for the Milwaukee Art Museum A MUSICAL ARK FOR LOS ANGELES Frank Gehry''s Spectacular Disney Hall Draws Energy from the City''s Chaos and Steers It toward a New Vision of Community ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGHS AND LOWS Daniel Libeskind''s Denver Art Museum Addition Is a Striking Urban Presence but Doesn''t Soar as a Showcase BLADES OF GLASS The New Spertus Institute and Its Gemlike Wall Form a Welcome Counterpoint to Chicago''s Michigan Avenue Historic District FROM THE SPECTACULAR TO THE SUBTLE A BRIGHTER IDEA Steven Holl''s Bloch Building at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City Redefines the Museum Addition CHICAGO''S TEMPLE OF LIGHT Much More than a Container for Art, Renzo Piano''s Refined Modern Wing Opens to Nature and the City A SIDEWALK THROUGH THE SKY With Quiet Nautical Flourish, the Nichols Bridgeway Connects the Modern Wing of the Art Institute to Millennium Park BIG STARS ON CAMPUS BOLD NEW LOOK ON CAMPUS Can Sexy, Signature Buildings Successfully Fuse Form and Function? TRIUMPHANT HOMECOMING Helmut Jahn Designs an Illinois Institute of Technology Dorm that Looks Elegantly at Home THOM MAYNE''S STUDENT RECREATION CENTER AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI IS THE LATEST PIECE OF AN EXEMPLARY PUZZLE 4 The Changing Faces of Preservation and Conservation NEW CHALLENGES FOR HISTORIC PRESERVATION THE DANGER OF BECOMING SKIN-DEEP Chicago Historic Buildings Become Shells as New Rules of Preservation Are Letting City''s History Slip Away HEALING PROCESS It''s Unclear Whether Cook County Hospital Can or Should Be Saved, but There Hasn''t Been a Full Airing of the Question WHY LOSING SOLDIER FIELD''S LANDMARK STATUS MATTERS Uncle Sam Draws a Line, Saving Avant-Garde Architecture from Its Worst Excesses LOVE IT? HATE IT? OR BOTH? An Architecture Critic Revisits the Building He Despised as a Student and Has a Revelation THIS MIES BUILDING AT IIT CAN GO Squat Brick Structure Isn''t the Architect''s Best Work, and the Metra Expansion Merits Its Razing HISTORIC PRESERVATION AND GREEN ARCHITECTURE Friends or Foes? THE BLOOMING OF GREEN ARCHITECTURE CHICAGO, MY KIND OF GREEN The Windy City Presents a Snapshot of the Sustainability Movement''s Strengths and Shortcomings GOING "NET ZERO" TO MAKE A GREEN STATEMENT First-of-Its-Kind Home in Chicago Will Produce as Much Energy as It Uses TEMPLE OF GREEN In the Grand Rapids Art Museum, a Measured Approach to Design Reveals that Elegance and Environmentalism Are Not Incompatible 5 A New Era and New Challenges REIMAGINING REGIONS AND HOUSING GOING FORWARD Planning for Chicago''s Future Requires Burnham-Style Vision--and a Big Pair of Green-Tinted Glasses SHORTSIGHTED POLEMICS The Ideological Catfights over Housing Threaten to Marginalize All of Architecture CHA POLISHES ITS ROUGH EDGES Architect Dresses up the Dearborn Homes, Georgian Style, and Upgrades Living Spaces Inside BRICK BY BRICK Born as a Horse Stable, the Brick Weave House Provides the Perfect Home for a Pair of Urbanite Gearheads THE BLESSINGS--AND BURDENS--OF INFRASTRUCTURE A GRANDER CANYON The Rebuilt Wacker Drive Has Emerged Not Only Fixed, but Finer CHICAGO''S SECOND WATERFRONT A New Stretch of River Walk Furthers the Dream of Turning a Once-Harsh Industrial Zone into a Prime Public Space NEW RANDOLPH STATION WORKS WITHIN ITS LIMITS Renovated Station a Bright Spot in Daily Commute THE WAY WE MOVE--AND LIVE America''s Infrastructure Crisis Arrives on Chicago''s Doorstep HIGH HOPES, HIGH BUILDINGS, AND SOBERING REALITIES GOOD-BYE, ICONS; HELLO, INFRASTRUCTURE Obama Inaugurates a New Era of Architecture BACK TO BASICS President Obama''s Infrastructure Plan Won''t Match the Great New Deal Public Works Projects, but It Moves America in the Right Direction ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ILLUSTRATION CREDITS INDEX.